wonkistan:

It is the eve of election day in the United States, Wonkistan! We’ve had a great discussion on voting and civics over the past few months, so we thought we would round up our favorite videos, articles, and links in preparation of the big day.

You’ll also see our latest episode, “Voting (Or Not!)” embedded above. Ivan talks with his friend Andrew, who is not voting this year, about his decision and the philosophies informing it. We contrast Andrew’s position to Hank Green’s “You. Must. Vote.” video, which in our opinion oversimplifies the many options available to voters. Andrew argues that not voting is an acceptable and even a responsible choice, and we want to give you a chance to hear his reasoning.

Now for our link party! 

VIDEOS

BLOGS

-Dealbreakers:

-Compulsory Voting: Rohan’s response to Hussien’s video

-Third parties:

-Peace Candidates: Buchanan from the American Conservative. One of the most notable peace candidates, George McGovern, passed away last month; shortly before his death, The Atlantic compared his radical anti-Vietnam and -Iraq War positions to modern historical consensus.

-Apathy: “In Praise of Apathy” by Christian Caryl

-Abstaining: “To Vote or Not To Vote? My Head Hurts” by Sana Saeed

-Personal perspectives:

TADA, a nice bunch of links and beautiful video explaining the complexity behind voting, and attempting to understand the different reasonings behind choosing to do so, or deliberately and purposely not. I urge you all to think about what you might do tomorrow. 

Voting, But You Don’t Have To (by Peng1TV)

So, I just got done filling out my absentee ballot, and wanted to talk about the entire “You have no excuse not to vote, it is your duty” thing, because its not really a legitimate democratic argument, abstention from voting is done for good reasons for some people, and its important not to simply blame it on laziness. Sorry Hank, I don’t HAVE to vote.

Source: youtube.com

So people here are freaking out

Supposedly in a few minutes the new Egyptian president will be announced. If you read any international news, that shouldn’t be too new for you. Of course the announcement has been delayed twice, but we’ll see what happens. 

Lots of rumors have been going around (And if you’re in Egypt you know that “EVERY WORD HAS A PRICE”) and I’ll go ahead and spell out a few. 

  • Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood has won the votes But Shafik is rigged to win
  • If Shafik wins, the country will go up in flames in a bigger revolution
  • The brotherhood has been handing out pens with disappearing ink, making votes invalid for Shafik supporters
  • Shafik smokes a lot of Bango (Egyptian slang for pot) 
  • Mursi is a teddy bear (I think I started that one, but whenever he talks, I feel like I can pick him up and put him in my pocket)

Stay tuned, unless of course the new Egyptian Republic has decided to block out all use of the internet or even worse, no Tumblr :0

PS: I’m playing pokemon and eating jelly bears while I wait for the apocalypse. I hope those exist in a few minutes….

Sometimes the Republican Party confuses me so much

Its understood already that for the most part, The Democratic Party is all big government, trying to increase the power of the federal. Great, and I was supposed to be able to depend on the Republican party to counteract that with defending my liberties. Sadly, it seems that even though regulation of arms is an issue of liberty, regulation of the internet, even at the expense of non-malicious users, is instead an issue of security. 

Can I have a new consistent Republican party please? or just in general have the Libertarians take over, because I’m fairly sure that they practice laissez faire both ways, whether it hurts or helps big companies. 

thisistheverge: US House passes CISPA The US House of Representatives has just passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR 3523) by a vote of 248 to 168. Shit guys. White House Officials have already stated issues with CISPA, and there is a chance this will be vetoed. Just did the math and the vote doesn’t hold a super majority of 2/3, so unless the bill is changed or congressmen change their minds, Its really up to Obama whether this passes or not. Please show that you’re a progressive president and Veto. I understand the importance of Cyber Security (My IR paper is basically about it) but this is hasty and controversial. 
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thisistheverge:

US House passes CISPA

The US House of Representatives has just passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR 3523) by a vote of 248 to 168.

Shit guys. White House Officials have already stated issues with CISPA, and there is a chance this will be vetoed. Just did the math and the vote doesn’t hold a super majority of 2/3, so unless the bill is changed or congressmen change their minds, Its really up to Obama whether this passes or not. Please show that you’re a progressive president and Veto. I understand the importance of Cyber Security (My IR paper is basically about it) but this is hasty and controversial. 

This post has nothing to do with Israel just so that I make myself clear, I really don’t feel like getting into an issue like that. I however fail to understand how anyone in their right mind can call out fellow christians and say they better find another religion based on a political manner (The person quoted here continued to say that the Obama administration doesn’t support Israel, which I personally find hard to believe). Look, I get it, you don’t like Obama. And yes, you really like Israel, to the extent that you believe its a religious requirement for you to support them. I still fail to understand how the hell you think its appropriate, or how righteous you must feel in your political convictions to make such a claim. How is this better than a member of Al-Queda convincing muslims that their cause is righteous, as much as they’re terrorists, they’re still a political force.  These are issues that people should make based on logic or reasoning, not because every damn thing in the world is made up of good guys and bad guys and God is always on your side. I don’t understand how people can be so ignorant of their actions. I don’t understand people who claim to be members of faith, yet casually cast others out as “Not real <insert religion here>” because of something like this. Who are you to be the judge? Last time I checked you weren’t Jesus, actually I thought being judgmental was precisely Anti-Jesus like, but what would I know.
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This post has nothing to do with Israel just so that I make myself clear, I really don’t feel like getting into an issue like that. I however fail to understand how anyone in their right mind can call out fellow christians and say they better find another religion based on a political manner (The person quoted here continued to say that the Obama administration doesn’t support Israel, which I personally find hard to believe). Look, I get it, you don’t like Obama. And yes, you really like Israel, to the extent that you believe its a religious requirement for you to support them. I still fail to understand how the hell you think its appropriate, or how righteous you must feel in your political convictions to make such a claim. How is this better than a member of Al-Queda convincing muslims that their cause is righteous, as much as they’re terrorists, they’re still a political force.  These are issues that people should make based on logic or reasoning, not because every damn thing in the world is made up of good guys and bad guys and God is always on your side. I don’t understand how people can be so ignorant of their actions. I don’t understand people who claim to be members of faith, yet casually cast others out as “Not real <insert religion here>” because of something like this. Who are you to be the judge? Last time I checked you weren’t Jesus, actually I thought being judgmental was precisely Anti-Jesus like, but what would I know.

http://dft.ba/-whynosopa
http://dft.ba/-Nosopavid
Yeah, so those are a few things, but The Verge, Cnet, Gizmodo, Engadget and a bunch of other tech sites are much better at explaining this then I am. go and read, contact your congressman if you haven’t already, and just in general make this a topic that people talk about, because Laws should be made for the good of the whole, not the few who are rich enough to lobby.

So, I got invited to a Press Conference for this organization that wants to change how the nomination process will work in the United States. 
http://www.americanselect.org/
Basically, this is not a political party, but an avenue for normal Americans to cast votes for anyone who runs through this method to be one of the three, not two, nominees for the US presidency. It all works on the internet on the website I posted above. Its a revolutionary idea that really does put politics further into the 21st century, and in all honesty results in a more democratic process.